To ensure effective implementation of the revised development plan (DP) 2034, the civic body is charting out four sets of five-year programmes, prioritising various provisions in the DP. The DP department is expected to finish charting out the plans in the next six months. An analysis of the past two development plans of 1964 and 1991 indicated that substantially, implementation of the DPs had failed primarily due to financial constraints and lack of futuristic planning during the formulation of the annual budget. As per total DP implementation costs listed in the draft DP report, only 36.48 per cent of the DP 1967 and 33.65 per cent of the DP 1991 were utilised. Based on its current year’s budget of Rs 37,000 crore, the BMC’s cumulative budget in 20 years will not be able to afford even half the plans in the revised DP 2034. [related-post] Watch Video: What's making news Ramanath Jha, the Officer on Special Duty who is overseeing the DP revision process, said the total cost of implementing the DP stands at around Rs 14.15 lakh crore and the BMC will fall short of covering it. “Even after considering the entire current budget, the BMC would have around Rs 7 lakh crore in 20 years, which won’t cover more than half the budget the DP needs. Thus, the DP has an attractive accommodation reservation policy for people, to encourage them to be partners in developing the city,” he said. The accommodation reservation policy provides incentives to landowners or housing societies to develop reserved amenities, by compensating them in terms of FSI and TDR. The DP team, which started working on the five-year plans last month, stated they are currently listing out the tasks and will subsequently prioritise them based on their financial needs and incentivised planning. “This is the first time that the BMC is trying something like this and the tasks run into thousands. We have identified municipal plots where there will be no land acquisition costs and are focusing on social amenities, starting with solid waste management facilities,” said an official from the DP team requesting anonymity. Jha said that plans that involve municipal plots will be prioritised, followed by those depending on the willingness of landowners and finally focus on amenity deficits across the city. “Amenities attract people to live in a particular area with the promise of a good quality of life. We have to, thus, bridge deficits in the social amenities and bring all the wards in the city at par,” he said. Jha added that once that exercise is over, the funding would be planned, after which the entire plan would be taken to the standing committee. “There will be thousands of tasks to be implemented. We will have to take a call on whether the BMC will maintain ventures or construct them and pass them on to other social agencies or government departments for maintenance,” said Jha. Jha also stated that ward offices will be instructed to reach out to the people to raise awareness about the accommodation reservation policy. “The DP is very technical and most people don’t understand the provisions. The BMC will take up the role of a relationship manager and ward officials will get in touch with people and explain what is on the table,” he said.
